It is crucial to understand and predict consumers' behaviour to meet future consumer demands. This report contributes to the discussion by giving an insight into consumers' behaviour from the perspective of Gianluigi Zenti, executive director of Academia Barilla. It is discussed how consumers' choice has changed in particular with regard to Italian food in the US and how Barilla has responded to that challenge.Consumer demand, consumer behaviour, Academia Barilla, Italian food, Consumer/Household Economics,

Hartl, Jochen

English

Research Papers in Economics

© 2006 International Food and Agribusiness Management Association (IAMA). All rights reserved.  88
 
International Food and Agribusiness Management Review 
Volume 9, Issue 2, 2006 
 
Gianluigi Zenti, President, Academia Barilla SpA – The Changing 
Consumer: Demanding but Predictable 
 
Jochen Hartl aL 
 
a Student Interviewer, Institute for Agricultural Policy and Market,Justus-Liebig-Univerität, 
Giessen, Senckenbergstrasse 3, Giessen, 35390, Germany 
 
Abstract 
 
It is crucial to understand and predict consumers’ behaviour to meet future 
consumer demands. This report contributes to the discussion by giving an insight 
into consumers’ behaviour from the perspective of Gianluigi Zenti, executive 
director of Academia Barilla. It is discussed how consumers’ choice has changed in 
particular with regard to Italian food in the US and how Barilla has responded to 
that challenge. 
 
Keywords: Consumer demand, consumer behaviour, Academia Barilla, Italian food 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                           
L  Corresponding author: Tel: + 49-641-99-37038 
            Email: Jochen.Hartl@agrar.uni-giessen.de  Hartl / International Food and Agribusiness Management Review Volume 9, Issue 2, 2006 
© 2006 International Food and Agribusiness Management Association (IAMA). All rights reserved.  89
Introduction 
 
Nobody would doubt that consumers’ choice is getting more complex and 
differentiated. Thus, it is widely recognized that consumers develop more 
heterogeneous demands for sensory, health, process and convenience qualities. 
These changes in consumer behavior, reinforced by changes in the retailing sector, 
provide new opportunities for food manufactures to add value and differentiate 
products, which can lead to less price competition, higher margins, stronger 
consumer preferences, brand equity and better negotiating power facing retailers.  
 
This seems to be also true for Italian foods in the US space. Basic Italian fare is 
already ubiquitous in mainstream America. However, consumers nowadays seem to 
develop more differentiated tastes and views about Italian food. Consumers 
continue to be educated by media-influences, travel, local Italian restaurants, 
retailers and manufactures about the variety of Italian cuisine. In the past, most 
manufactures have taken some Italian ingredients and concepts and put a 
definitive American touch to them. Today, more Americans are aware that Italian 
food does not translate to Americanized pizza, lasagnas and spaghetti with 
meatballs. There is broader understanding that Italian cuisine is regional. As a 
result - even as Americanized Italian food items stay very popular - consumers are 
increasingly interested in authentic Italian food and consumers now seek out 
regional Italian products with DOP (Protected Designation of Origin) designations. 
 
This report discusses how consumers’ behavior, in particular with regard to Italian 
food, changed from the perspective of Barilla, one of the leading manufactures of 
Italian food. Academia Barilla Director Gianluigi Zenti, who is credited with 
building the Barilla brand in the US, gives an insight into evolutions on the demand 
side and how Barilla responded to them. Ten years ago, Barilla started their 
engagement with the US market; educating people about, and marketing, authentic 
Italian lifestyle. The result was a 20 percent increase in the market share in the 
US, making Barilla the No. 1 pasta maker in the US. 
  
In 2004 Barilla launched Academia Barilla, which is both a culinary center in 
Parma dedicated to further education about Italian culture and cuisine as well as a 
branded product line that will meet differentiated consumer demands. The basic 
mission of Academia Barilla is to develop, protect and preserve the art and tradition 
of Italian gastronomy in the world. Specifically, Academia Barilla emphasizes the 
importance of educating the world about which Italian products are authentic 
versus which are substandard imitations. To accomplish this mission, Academia 
Barilla offers culinary courses and consulting services for consumers and businesses 
worldwide as well as an introduction to authentic Italian products. The location for 
this mission could not fit better: Parma, which is already referred to as the “Food 
Valley” of Italy. In addition, Academia Barilla offers corporate services surrounded  Hartl / International Food and Agribusiness Management Review Volume 9, Issue 2, 2006 
© 2006 International Food and Agribusiness Management Association (IAMA). All rights reserved.  90
by the five-star Hotel de la Ville, a gastronomic library, a cinema complex, shops, 
and restaurants.  
 
The product line is designed for the high-end US market and is distributed mainly 
through gourmet stores and fine restaurants. The product palette includes extra 
virgin oils, balsamic vinegars, regional cheeses and cured meats. The product line is 
being developed in conjunction with artisan producers across Italy. All products 
bear DOP seals and the quality is assured by Academia Barilla members along with 
chefs from particular regions, who are performing blind taste testes to select the 
best producers. 
 
Interview Notes 
 
Usually it is said that consumer choice is getting more complex. Do you think this is 
also true for Italian food in the US? Are Americans developing more differentiated 
views about Italian food?  
 
Gianluigi Zenti: The evolution of the consumer knowledge is tremendous. In the 
beginning of the 90’s consumers considered “spaghetti and meatballs” as Italian 
food, today more and more consumers know about regional Italian food. The 
evolution is significant, however the consumers do not get enough information on 
what is real Italian food, for instance what are the real recipes or how you should 
drink certain wines. 
  
The other big issue is that there are three components of a product: a physical, an 
emotional, and an aspiration component. For instance in pasta, initially the 
physical component was the most important. The evolution of food is that the 
physical component becomes less, the emotional and aspiration component become 
more important. It is predictable, but today it is harder to understand what 
consumers are looking for. The things they are looking out for in a product can be 
very different: are they looking for sustainability, authentic products, local or 
environmental-friendly production? Thus, today it is not enough that a product just 
tastes good; you have to consider all the emotional and aspiration aspects. As those 
things are much more psychological and cultural related, you need to develop new 
techniques to understand and serve consumer needs. 
 
How, then, do you position your products in the US market? Do you meet the 
emotional and aspiration aspect with authentic Italian feeling and lifestyle? 
 
Gianluigi Zenti: We started with zero business in America ten years ago. Initially 
we were selling pasta to Italian restaurants, which became the credible 
spokesperson of Barilla. Then we went to the US supermarkets, where we have 
today about 20 percent market share. We have promoted Italian food in America by 
communicating with Italian music and Italian lifestyle. It was very successful,  Hartl / International Food and Agribusiness Management Review Volume 9, Issue 2, 2006 
© 2006 International Food and Agribusiness Management Association (IAMA). All rights reserved.  91
because we really worked on the emotional and aspiration component. We think 
this is in line with the expectations of the consumers, who are looking more for 
culture about food. So that is really the big change. As I said, the big evolution is 
that the future consumer is not just looking on physical components like taste or 
healthy nutrition. Certainly these aspects are important, but they are not enough. 
In the future over 80 percent of the value will account for the emotional and 
aspiration component. Thus, it is becoming more important to know how to build 
equity in this area, how to build aspiration and emotional values. 
 
How do you communicate your products to the consumer? 
 
Gianluigi Zenti: This is becoming more and more difficult. Thus, another big 
challenge is that TV is less and less effective. Before you could do TV 
advertisements and it was easy to build equity. Today, there are too many channels 
and people do not watch TV as much as they were used. So you need to work on 
many other, below-the-line activities. For instance, we have a theatre in Parma – 
teatro del gusto (theater of taste) -, where we do theatralization of gastronomy. It is 
like seeing a good movie, where people feel emotionally involved. Thus, we try to do 
the same thing with food. In addition, we have many laboratories, where we do 
technical evaluation. We do culinary classes where you actually cook and we do 
tasting classes, where it teaches you how to distinguish the different type of 
products. Thus, another big problem is that a lot of people cannot distinguish a good 
coffee from a bad coffee, since nobody taught you what is good and what is bad, or 
what you should look for. So we are building a whole database, a knowledge center.  
 
We are going to start teaching, because the consumers are expecting the 
manufacturers not just to produce but also to teach them about products and how to 
use them. This is a big evolution, not just being a manufacturer but also a big 
communicator of knowledge. 
 
There are a lot American-Italian products in the US marketplace, which are 
probably not close to the original. Does this factor make it even more important to 
educate consumers? 
 
Gianluigi Zenti: This is a big problem, because 70 percent of the Italian products 
sold in the US are actually not real Italian products. They might have an Italian 
name or an Italian flag, but they are made in Argentina or Canada. This is a big 
problem, because when consumers do not like these products, they loose trust in the 
Italian food and they would never buy the real Italian product. So education is the 
only way to give consumers the tools to be able to select which product they want to 
buy and it will give more return on the investment of the company. This is a very 
long and costly process, but sooner or later you have to do it. Thus, you can not give 
up on the role of giving culture. In the end culture is the base of the business. We 
think that the evolution is going to go back to basics. If you start teaching people  Hartl / International Food and Agribusiness Management Review Volume 9, Issue 2, 2006 
© 2006 International Food and Agribusiness Management Association (IAMA). All rights reserved.  92
about what is good and bad, they are more and more loyal and they are willing to 
pay a premium. 
 
Because another problem is that imitated Italian products are made at the lowest 
cost. China is becoming a very big competitor, because they can produce almost any 
product at a much lower cost than Europe or the US. So if we do not build on the 
cultural side, European agribusiness will not have a business in the next 20 years, 
because it will be always cheaper to produce outside of Europe. So it is really a 
question of survival that has to be done in the next 15 years.  
 
So we are against the counterfeiting of products and this should apply for all 
countries. We are not trying to sell only Italian products; I think there is a space for 
everybody. Thus, the identity is becoming very important in globalized systems. The 
concept is to promote the identity, because otherwise there is no future. 
 
What consequences will these developments have in the future? 
 
Gianluigi Zenti: The overall quality of the food is a problem. From 1995 the quality 
of US food went up significantly. However, in the future the quality of food will split 
into different directions: there will be one consumer segment that is looking for 
higher quality and one bigger segment that is looking for lower quality at a lower 
price. Before the market was very homogenous and the overall quality was going 
up. To serve this development is to segment; we need to start working to serve the 
higher quality segment, that is looking more for emotional and aspiration aspects.   
 
In addition the distribution of food will change. I think that discounter like Aldi are 
going to become the way of selling food, because they are very efficient. On the other 
side, some consumers are still looking to buy high-quality products. Thus, other 
chains that are specialized in high-quality foods will also gain market share. For 
instance, in the US Whole Foods became very successful, who only sell natural and 
organic products. Thus, there will be also a big segmentation on the retailers’ level. 
So overall we are in a situation, where consumers are changing dramatically, 
because their expectations are changing. 
 
Is consumer demand predictable? How do you discover trends in your company? 
 
Gianluigi Zenti: We do a lot of analytical research. In addition, we do a lot of 
interviews and we have two locations were we invite consumers and we film what 
they do, how they cook or how they make decisions. We conduct all of this research 
in-house, we do not buy research from outside because everybody else has the same 
information that you buy from outside. You need to develop a method of 
understanding consumers, so market research is very important in our company. In 
addition, we do a lot of tests in different countries to find out common needs, so we 
can launch global products. We do not want to have specific products for every  Hartl / International Food and Agribusiness Management Review Volume 9, Issue 2, 2006 
© 2006 International Food and Agribusiness Management Association (IAMA). All rights reserved.  93
country, because we need scale economies. When we entered the US market for 
example, in the US pasta market were 3000 producers of pasta. The retailers said 
we do not need another pasta company. We argued that we have 100 percent Italian 
durum wheat pasta, which would be better. The retailers replied that the 
consumers are happy with what they have. We took the challenge and we made a 
whole educational campaign of eating the real Italian product. Five years later we 
became the market leader. So it was a success story of educating the consumer, not 
giving the consumer what the consumer wants. Because if you if I ask them what 
they want, if you do that kind of research, consumers say they are happy with what 
they have. Since they do not tell you what they want, you have to watch consumer 
behavior. In the end consumer behavior is predictable, but you need to use new 
tools to predict what the consumer wants. It is very challenging and it is becoming 
more psychological than technical. 
 
Conclusions  
 
This report gave an insight how consumers’ behavior in particular with regard to 
Italian food changed from the perspective of Gianluigi Zenti, executive director of 
Academia Barilla. Two points are of particular importance. 
 
First, consumers developed more differentiated views about Italian food over time. 
However, they often do not get the full information regarding real Italian food 
versus substandard imitations. So the central mission of Academia Barilla is to 
preserve the cultural identity by educating the consumers about real Italian food. 
 
Second, to communicate and be recognized by the consumers, it is more and more 
important not just to rely on the physically components of a product. Increasingly, 
consumers often want more than just food; they want to identify themselves with 
the product. Thus, for manufacturers it is becoming essential that consumers link 
their products with emotional and aspiration values. Gianluigi Zenti emphasizes 
the importance to build equity in the area. Barilla took that challenge and builds on 
emotional and aspiration values by promoting authentic Italian food, lifestyle and 
image. 
  
The need to preserve the identity and to build stronger on emotional and aspiration 
aspects of products is reinforced by globalization. Thus, in globalized systems it will 
become essential for manufacturers like Barilla to differ from the average product 
by building on the cultural associations. 
 
Reference 
 
Zenti, G. (2005), Interview at the 15th Annual World Food and Agribusiness Forum, 
Symposium and Case Conference, 06/27/05. 

Gianluigi Zenti, President, Academia Barilla SpA - The Changing Consumer: Demanding but Predictable

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